The Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security spoke about the new insurance bill, which will be put up for public consultation in the coming days, Panos Tsakloglouon his show TV station SKAI.

Referring to the changes brought by the bill for professional funds, Mr. Tsakloglou explained that insurance has three pillars: the first pillar is the mandatory social insurance, the second pillar is the voluntary collective insurance and the third pillar is the individual private insurance.

As he said, “with the new bill, the institutional framework of the second pillar changes – mainly of Professional Insurance Funds and the possibility of establishing multi-employer unions is given, a very important fact for our country, where the vast majority of businesses are small or very small”.

When asked about supplementary pensions, the Deputy Minister of Labor replied: “For supplementary pensions, the payment rules have not yet been unified. Each received an allowance according to the rules applicable to the pre-existing fund. For example, in the former IKA, upon reaching 15 years, the insured had the right to receive a supplementary pension, while, in the State, the same rules applied to the provision of the supplementary pension as for the main pension.

With the new bill, comes a provision that will simplify the procedures and conditions for establishing the right to an auxiliary pension for all former Funds, setting as a condition the completion of 15 years either in an institution or with successive insurance.

With this provision, approximately 15,000 pending pensions will be able to be issued almost automatically.”

Regarding the employment of pensioners, Mr. Tsakloglou underlined that, from now on, pensioners will receive their pension without a cut and a non-remunerative resource of 10% will be introduced for EFKA in income from salaried employment and something similar in income from self-employment.

Finally, regarding the debts of insured persons, who are at the stage of retirement, o Deputy Minister of Labour reminded that, according to the current legislation, in order for someone to get a pension, the amount of his debt to the insurance organization must not exceed 20,000 euros, if he is self-employed or 6,000 euros, if he is a farmer.

“What changes is that the ceiling increases from 20,000 euros to 30,000 euros and from 6,000 euros to 10,000 respectively, withholding 60% of the pension, until the debtor reaches 20,000 euros and then enters the existing regulation of 60 installments,” stressed the Mr. Tsakloglou and clarified that this can happen, when the insured has exhausted his working life, i.e. he has reached 67 years. He also clarified that the strategic non-payer will be separated from the person who really cannot pay, “so it will be checked if the bank account has deposits that exceed 12,000 euros”.